Nightmares
by Natala
Summary: At night, the memories and doubts plague their dreams. They need each other now, just like always. Oneshot. RikuSoraKairi. Post KH2.


Pairing: RikuxSoraxKairi.  
Spoilers: Yes  
Setting: Sometime post-KH2, a month or two. On the Island.  
Status: One-Shot. Complete.  
Author's Note: Well, this didn't go exactly as I hoped - but I decided to post it anyways, even if the transition between what had happened and what was happening was awful.

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Nightmares

Kairi wasn't sure how it had started. Or she did, but she wasn't sure why they all had joined in. Once back on Destiny Islands, they should have been fine, things should have been normal - but Riku and Sora had been gone over a year, and there was no believable explanation they could give. There was no way to explain why they would sometimes wake up and blades would appear in their hands before they were fully awake to combat shadows that for once, were just that.

She suspected it was Sora who first crept away from his mother to their small island. All she knew was that one day, she had woken up from a dream where Sora had not been able to come back - that he had been taken by the Darkness as he tried to seal the door, and Riku had followed. Trembling with the aftermath, she had acted on instinct. Her boat had been at the pier as always - and there had been two at the matching one at the island. It had only taken a minute to bolt across to the ladder and climb into the tree house - and there, showing all evidence of having been sleeping for a while, were her boys.

She had leaned in the doorframe, tilting her head as she watched them. She hadn't heard of their parents being woken up by their shouts in the last week - or perhaps two. Was this why? As she had watched, Riku had shifted restlessly, a small hiss coming from his now clenched jaw. It was the only sound that escaped, but she had seen the pained expression on his face.

She had moved a step forward - and then Sora had shifted, just enough that his elbow dug into his friend's side for a moment. Riku shifted once more, away from the offending limb - and fallen into a deeper sleep. She had smiled, and stepped in, taking a spot against the wall to sleep, thinking that perhaps this would be how they would heal.

If only it had been that easy. Eventually, the small space between Sora and Riku became none as the worse dreams were not driven off by the instinctual response one or the other formed in their sleep. Even Kairi's presence in their makeshift home didn't drive it totally away - nothing could drive away all of their nightmares, she was sure.

She had thought the worst would be Riku, who would jerk them all out of sleep with a cry of horror - and though he never said anything, the frantic way in which he searched the darkness, and then held them firmly close to him, both protective and protected, spoke volumes.

But what was worse was Sora - who didn't wake up with a cry, not always, but instead she would wake up to find him away from them both, contemplating a Keyblade, and staring at the stars - or at them. She never understood that look. Riku, waking up once, perhaps more from her feelings than from Sora's, had growled and muttered - and pulled Sora back, between them both.

"We're all safe and here, stupid," he had said, and had twined her hand with his over Sora's chest. Smiling, Sora had enclosed his hand over theirs and gone to sleep - but Riku didn't always wake up, and Kairi saying it didn't have the same effect as when Riku did.

There were the times when it was the one not dreaming who needed the comfort more. The times when she and Sora woke up at the same time, with a snap of their eyes and Riku staring at them both with a strange, almost panicked look on his face. For a moment upon waking up one time, Kairi had sworn her hair had for a moment, had just a tint of blonde. Sora had reached up that time, and pulled Riku to them - not precisely between them, they didn't go back to sleep that night, but letting him see.

"They can't truly disappear yet, that's all," Sora had said, and Kairi's heart had clenched guiltily - with guilt that wasn't truly hers.

"It wouldn't have happened at all if I - " Riku had begun, and Sora had laughed.

"Are you going to start that again? If we really want to get down to it, none of this would have happened if Xehanort hadn't... Well, if he hadn't been himself." Still grinning in the pale gray light before dawn, he had reached one hand back, and Kairi had taken it, putting her other in Riku's.

"We might not be so close if this hadn't happened," She had offered, and a hint of his usual smirk appeared on Riku's face.

"Saps," He had said, and they had gone outside, backs to the wall, side by side - and if their hands were still all connected, there was no one to comment.

Things changed the time when Sora's nightmare had consisted of a whispered "Axel..." while Riku had already woken her from a nightmare she was having. They had both glanced over sharply - but there was no hint of blond. While she had frowned slightly in worry, Riku had left, to lean out and look at the ocean - not quite brooding, but definitely thinking. She was careful to pay more attention to both of her boys the following day, and caught Riku studying Sora through narrowed eyes more than once. Worried, and an emotion that she didn't quite want to name - but that she felt herself when she remembered the sad sigh in the form of a name Sora had dreamed.

But they were just dreams.

Dreams, mostly, of things that could have happened.

But sometimes, dreams of things that had happened. Even when those things seemed like bad dreams themselves. Even though the keyblades were rarely in evidence anymore (Sora and Riku no longer woke up, fighting back to back against things that didn't exist or worse - each other) she knew they were true.

They started a fire that night on the beach - and if she and Riku watched Sora a bit more than was normal as he chatted with them freely, and if Riku's caustic comments were a bit more farther spaced apart and her own replies filled with hesitation - well, they were just dreams.

"Stop it," Sora said firmly, looking straight at them as they were studying him. "It was just a dream. Really guys, I don't know what I said, but you two have been acting weird all day, and that's gotta be it. Right?"

He wasn't smiling, just looking at them, a quizzical look in his bright blue eyes. Riku shrugged, "Axel."

Sora blinked, and stared at them. "Axel? He's gone."

"You said his name, in your sleep. And you weren't... It was you," Kairi said, shifting a bit uneasily. They didn't talk much about their dreams - small comforting words in the night, warriors who understood each other - and then best friends in the day light, the three of them unconcerned teenagers. It was hardest for Riku, who had lived with being a warrior more constantly and longer than Sora, and if one of them werenít there to stop him, probably would have brooded guiltily all day. ("You don't want to turn into _Leon _do you?" Sora had asked once.) Easiest for Sora, who gave and received comfort without questions. But they didn't talk about the too close touches or how close they slept, like a pile of frightened kittens in the dark.

Sora was silent for a long moment - but unexpectedly he smiled. It was tinged with sadness as he explained, "He saved me, in the darkness - and died doing it. Or... whatever Nobodies do. Just faded away. Put his whole being into an attack - so that I would survive."

"So Roxas would," Riku asserted, and Kairi knew that the emotion she didn't want to name was stirring in him as well as her.

"'He made me feel like I had a heart. You make feel the same...' " Sora shrugged, smiling that same smile. "Or something like that. Roxas, me, I don't think it matters. I just wish he hadn't had to do it. I know it's silly - but there's always this feeling that I could have been stronger - made it unnecessary."

"He was..." Kairi had been going to say "a Nobody" but she remembered Naminé and Roxas looking at each other, and what Axel had said to her. She stifled the thought.

"An enemy, I know," Sora continued, unaware of what she had really been going to say. She glanced toward Riku, but he was staring into the fire.

"He would have killed you if it would have meant having Roxas back," Riku pointed out, and it had to be the fire that made his eyes look angry.

"Yes. He loved him a lot." And grinning, Sora added, "Him, not me. The other me, but still different. So you two can stop being jealous now. I'm not secretly dreaming of kissing a red head in a black cloak."

Kairi felt her face heat up and saw Riku jerk back, his spine straightening, and his eyes wide in unfeigned surprise. Sora, still grinning, just shook his head at them. "Don't you think, considering how much time you two spend sleeping next to me, you'd know by now exactly what I dream of?"

Riku scoffed, trying to brush it off, but apparently couldn't find the words. Kairi shrugged, and smiled slightly. "We don't catch them all. It was a quiet dream - if we hadn't already been awake..."

Sora eyed them both and then directed a comforting smile at Kairi. "The alone one again?"

"How did you...?" Riku trailed off, then shook his head, the long silver hair brushing his arms. "Never mind."

"I do want to know how you knew it was me, and not him." Kairi watched both boys, Riku hiding his eyes beneath silver bangs and Sora directing a sidelong glance at him before looking back into her eyes.

"There aren't many dreams we have that only one of us could handle that we would need to be woken from, or wake up ourselves. And those ones are usually ones you shouldn't handle at all." His smile was sheepish, but her returning smile was brighter. She knew what he meant - she was better at fighting now, but she wasn't their kind of fighter, and she remembered well being woken up by clinking keyblades, or one of the boys forcefully restraining the other.

"I sometimes wonder if we'll ever be able to sleep alone," Riku said.

Sora shrugged and leaned back into the sand beside the fire. "So? It's not so bad."

"Better than you two trying to explain it to your parents," Kairi whispered. Sora's mother wasn't so bad - she tried, but Riku's parents practically smothered him trying to make sure he was healthy in the first few weeks. He had never been that touchy-feely as a person - and before thinking they had lost him, neither had they. Bitter fights had followed - and more subtle ones.

_"Riku? Why don't you cut your hair?"_ Kairi remembered his mother asking. Riku had been silent - and later, had asked Sora if he should cut it. _"Nah,_" Sora had said, and no explanation was given, or needed. Riku's mother tried - but the sixteen-year-old didn't budge, and Kairi was convinced that after finding his parents carrying around scissors that he had started going out more.

"At least my mom didn't argue when I started coming out here - she even seemed to think it might be a good idea. Familiar places and all that." Sora rolled his eyes. "Sometimes, I think she believes I have some kind of amnesia."

"She just knows how empty your head is," Riku cut in, and dodged the handful of sand thrown at him. A moment later the silver haired boy was on his feet, creeping toward a suddenly crouching Sora.

"Hey!" Kairi cried, and saw them hesitate for a moment. Smiling, she pointed at the fire. "Not near the fire, guys."

Smirking, Riku lunged toward Sora, and Kairi sighed as he put his own back to the fire - it figured he would find a way to turn it to his own advantage. It took only moments before the two were away, Sora jumping up onto the bridge - startling her as she realized just how much they had grown when Riku quickly followed. They jumped so high, so easily.

They never fought with the keyblades - not past when both were fully awake - but that didn't stop them from picking up the wooden swords and doing the same moves they sometimes did _with _the keys - but slower, more carefully, without the abandon of childhood. Yet, it was elegant, and still a competition - but one they already had solved, once and for all. Now there was no underlying tension - just pure fun - and now when Riku tackled the shorter boy, it wasn't cheating, but just part of the game.

She wasn't surprised to hear a splash from the papou tree's island, or to hear spluttering laughter - cut off quickly. She couldn't see them in the growing darkness, but she had no doubt Riku had managed to make them fall of the island - and had forgotten, once again, that Sora hadn't been joking when he said he had swum with a mermaid.

A few minutes later, Riku dragged himself on to shore, dropping down almost dangerously close to the fire and grumpily stating, "One of these days, he's going to drown, and I won't bring him back to shore."

The loud, joyous laughter from the waves told them Riku had been overly loud in his wrath. But Kairi peeked over and saw that Riku's eyes were closed, a smile tugging at his lips. She glanced at the waves, and then, quietly, "Do you think he meant it?"

"Meant what?" Riku asked, almost absently, and she could tell he was drifting off. She almost left it there.

"About us being jealous. And... kissing." She didn't want to watch Riku's smile freeze, but it did, and she couldn't tear her eyes away.

"He meant it - because we are. Or were. Jealous. He's... We're..." Riku stopped, frustrated, unable to find words for them - they were two boys and a girl, and it wasn't done - but she knew what he meant.

"We're together, no matter what," She said firmly, and though he wasn't smiling, he did relax.

"Yeah - and, even if we're not like that - Sora's ours." Riku gave a short chuckle. "Not to sound overly possessive, but he's our friend, our... whatever, and thinking of Axel touching him - Hell, it's not just him, it's you and anyone who you might have drifted to. Right, Sora?"

Kairi jumped a bit, but realized a bit late, she could feel Sora, in back - and Riku always paid more attention to their whereabouts. Sora slipped closer to the fire stretching out on the opposite side of the fire from Riku, soaking in the heat on his wet clothes.

"Sure. See, Kairi, though he tries to put it in macho, possessive terms, what Riku's trying to say is he couldn't _possibly_ live without us," Kairi relaxed as Sora lightened the atmosphere - she couldn't have done it, and Riku would have become uncomfortable with his own candor soon enough - it was easier to hear the truth when it was displayed as an innocent joke.

"Me? Not being able to live without a lazy bum who sleeps in a tree house or a girl who draws on cave walls? Come _on_, who'd want to live _with _you?" Riku shot back.

"A sap. You," Sora said carelessly. Sand flew through the fire. Sora closed his eyes against the onslaught and grinned, his voice a singsong. "Sa-ap."

"De-ad," Riku growled, rolling over and making motions to get up.

"Yup. That's me. I drowned out there, and really, I'm just a zombie. Zombie Sora, king of the undead." Sora ignored the shifting in the sand, and soon it settled down.

Riku snorted, folding his hands behind his head as he reclined once again. "More like janitor."

"Maybe both. King by day, janitor by night," Kairi giggled.

"Man, what a shoddy kingdom I must have," Sora whined. It was a bit of a sleepy sound, and Riku seemed to notice it too. He grunted, dragging himself around the fire, and poked his friend on the top of his head.

"Hey, I'm not dragging your ass up the ladder. I'm leaving your here if you fall asleep." Riku glared as Sora opened his eyes to stare at his upside down face - and then promptly closed them again, and rolled over.

Riku blinked like an offended cat and shook Sora roughly. "We're not sleeping out here either!"

Kairi saw Sora's eyes open, a strange mischievous glint in them, and she stood to walk the few paces over to them, watching in amusement as Sora awkwardly stretched back and gave Riku an upside down kiss, saying, "Deal with it. It's warm out."

While still shocked by Sora's kiss, Kairi leaned forward, feeling daring, and sought his lips with hers for a quick chaste kiss that still had her blushing fiercely when she dropped down to stretch out against Sora's front, pressing toward him despite his wet clothes. To make it even, she pecked him on the lips as well, and felt him stir long enough to open one eye and give her a lazy, happy smile and pull her closer while turning slightly, reaching a hand toward Riku.

"You two," Riku grumbled, but Kairi saw him fighting down a smirk. "Ignorant, that's what you are."

"And proud of it," Sora murmured, and shifted fully onto his back as Riku settled beside him. Kairi found both boys were pulling her half on top of him as they sough equal contact with each other and her. In the end, Sora hadn't moved an inch, and somehow Riku managed to have his legs tangled with both of theirs, and a hand on each of them, his breath fanning both their necks. It was closer even than their usual nighttime comforts. She had a feeling now there would be no individual comforts - they couldn't leave without waking each other, and certainly there would be none of the usually cheerful Sora staring at them from the wall, or Riku seeking more contact with them - and she believed half of the dreams she could think of off hand would be abolished. How could any of them dream of losing each other or being alone when they had such a firm grip on each other?

"Finally," She murmured at the encompassing feeling of warmth. It wasn't totally comfortable - but neither was sleeping alone. She didn't know why she had said it - she hadn't consciously known she wanted it until it had happened.

"You two are so slow. It's a good thing I'm the one who goes on quests. We'd all be gray by the time you two did anything," Sora muttered.

"Hey!" Riku protested, and would have sat up if the other two hadn't wrapped arms around him. "How many hints did it take for you to figure things out? And then _still_ having to have them explained?"

Kairi tried not to stiffen - but she didn't want this to be the thing she sometimes half feared - that they would be talking about it, like they sometimes did, and Sora or Riku would say or do the wrong thing - and she would lose them. But Sora chuckled, his chest trembling under her head. 

"Point," He said. "You have a point."

"Of course I do. I always have a point," Riku scoffed, and hid his smile in Sora's neck.

Kairi felt Riku drift off first - a surprise, but she could tell, even without looking, that Sora was not truly asleep. She glanced at him, and saw him open blue eyes filled with curiosity.

"Can we? Stay like this? It's just... People aren't accepting, and I don't think I could lose either of you two again." She had to stop her hands from gripping theirs more tightly - that would have made Riku wake up for sure.

"People don't have to accept it - it just is. We won't be apart ever again. We need each other." He said it so calmly, and firmly - there were no doubts in his mind.

She let his confidence and Riku's easy acceptance convince her - and fell asleep.

This time, when the darkness in her dreams came to claim her, larger, calloused hands slipped into each of hers, and the darkness faded away.

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Thank you all for reading.


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